VAR (sorry!)

At 63 and thus of the older vintage I welcome goal line technology and could accept penalty decisions being ratified or overturned, however, I thought the offside rule was to prevent a forward seeking an advantage by basically loitering behind the defence. What we now have is a rule governed by the size of a players feet meaning his big toe is offside or he happens to lean forward prior to receiving the ball and thus his head or shoulders may be beyond the last defender. Was it the Southampton v Derby cup game where the size of a defenders backside resulted in the player being onside.

If they insist on keeping VAR then change that rule to say there must be clear daylight between defender and attacker at the time the ball is played as even technology does not give an exact reading of when the ball is actually kicked, hence the big toe may have been onside at that “precise” moment.

We still have the stupid “second phase” rule whereby you can be five yards offside when the ball is played to a teammate who then squares it for you to score but that’s ok even though you have gained a glaring advantage over the defender by taking up that initial offside position. Thankfully when we old guys played no such stupid interpretation existed and progress is not always good.

VAR is brilliant if you sit at home necking pop and crisps while watching match of the day having never entered a football ground in your life.
Everything is explained to you from every angle and the game lasts lots longer so more value for your sky subscription.
For people like you and me who have spent our lives paying through the turnstiles it's just another nail in the coffin of the game we love.
"Ooh the ball's in the back of the net, give it 5mins to see if we can have a terrace boogie"

Just a suggestion, get rid of offside completely, all the controversial goals would straight away become legitimate, it would open the game up as you could leave a forward in the opposition penalty area all game, and I suspect create even more goals hence games would be more exciting.

Quoted from Gaffer58

Just a suggestion, get rid of offside completely, all the controversial goals would straight away become legitimate, it would open the game up as you could leave a forward in the opposition penalty area all game, and I suspect create even more goals hence games would be more exciting.

Interesting concept personally would change to only being offside in the penalty area. Think older fishy members may remember this being tried in the old Witney Cup but it was so long ago can’t remember if was deemed a successful idea nor who played in that damn mini preseason tournament or why/how clubs qualified for it.

Quoted from Lincoln Mariner 56

Interesting concept personally would change to only being offside in the penalty area. Think older fishy members may remember this being tried in the old Witney Cup but it was so long ago can’t remember if was deemed a successful idea nor who played in that damn mini preseason tournament or why/how clubs qualified for it.

Yes I remember it. The idea was to stop the defenders playing offside on the half way line and squashing the play into midfield. Wasn’t there a line right across the field at 18 yards?

I'm all for VAR

The cheating in football is spiralling out of control, players are now going down in the penalty area with the slightest of nudges.

It's not ideal but VAR is the only thing that will save our game.

Good point by Scuntland, I'm in favour but then again I don't support a Club attending matches where it affects my match day experience week in week out so can I really make a fair and proper judgement?

Listen the debate sure to rage on and like Brexiteers versus Remainers or Liberal lefties against the right, both sides bound to become entrenched in their views and unlikely to waiver from their stance. I say it'll calm down in time but I'm sure there plenty who will forever hark to the 'good old days' before VAR.

One thing is for certain it isn't going anywhere.

Quoted from promotion plaice

I'm all for VAR

The cheating in football is spiralling out of control, players are now going down in the penalty area with the slightest of nudges.

It's not ideal but VAR is the only thing that will save our game.

Nothing annoys me more either PP but I don’t think giving refs a new toy to play with is going to help. They are already showing signs of not taking responsibility and VAR will just make it worse. To my mind events that happen on the field should be dealt with on the field. If we are having VAR then have it for everything, referee the game from upstairs via whistles and a loudspeaker and call it something else other than football.

Football , at least at the higher levels , has changed so much because of the money that is now involved. There is more at stake now to satisfy owners and this has lead to more cheating , some of it not so subtle, to get a result. The fine lines between off-side and handball, quite a few not being totally picked up by the match officials, has resulted in FIFA, UEFA and the FA looking for technological solutions. The result is VAR and goal line technology, with the latter welcomed but the former causing so much confusion. Certainly with off side the criteria should be re-examined and maybe some small degree of latitude allowed ie if the whole of the leading foot and not just 2 or 3 cms. The problem is that Pandoras' Box has been opened and VAR will certainly not go away.

I read reports about the matches at the weekend where fans were not celebrating goals in the usual manner, due to them being suspicious about whether VAR would intervene.

The greatest thing about the game is the instant celebrations when a goal is scored. Take that away and the game dies a little.